Field
The present disclosure relates to extrusion devices and, in particular, a hand-held implement configured to extrude a material so as to construct three-dimensional (3D) objects.
Description of the Related Art
Three-dimensional printers are known which may be used to produce 3D items of all types. Certain printers operate by deposition of sequential layers of plastic while others function by sequential agglomeration or solidification of layers of a precursor material. These printers tend to be large and expensive and require the design to be provided as a computer file, for example as generated by a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) program.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,158 to Froedge discloses a conventional handheld extrusion device. A chamber is filled with a granulated solid plastic material and then sealed with a cap. The contents of the chamber are heated to melt the plastic and create pressure within the chamber. A passage leads from the chamber to a rotatable nozzle that blocks flow in a first position and allows flow in a second position. A trigger is attached to the nozzle such that pulling the trigger moves the nozzle to the second position, thereby allowing the molten plastic to be expelled from the nozzle due to the pressure within the chamber. Releasing the trigger allows the nozzle to return to the first position, thereby stopping the flow of plastic. There is no provision to replenish the raw material without shutting off the device nor any mechanism to mechanically feed material to the nozzle at a constant rate. In addition, Froedge's system does not provide a means of cooling the extruded material.